After the HPG (People's Defense
Forces) declared on 1 June 2004 an end to the unilateral ceasefire that
had been announced on 1 September 1998 clashes increased. Between 20 August
and 3 October the PKK announced a period without actions. Prior to this
there was an intense discussion on another ceasefire. In 2005 the discussion of
the Kurdish question mainly focused on incidents in Şemdinli, Hakkari and
Yüksekova and the prison conditions of Abdullah Öcalan (for the bomb attacks
in Şemdinli, Hakkari and Yüksekova see the chapter on Right to Life and
for demonstrations in favor of Abdullah Öcalan see the chapter on Freedom
of Assembly). Between 28 March and 4 April
a congress for the Re-Structuring of the PKK was held and the new establishment
of the PKK was announced. On 9 April the daily Özgür Politika presented
a declaration of Murat Karayılan the spokesperson of the parliament of
the PKK on the new perspective. He said that the name PKK did not mean
that the organization would turn back to the old days. In the past the
PKK had followed a violent course for the creation of an independent State.
Although the spirit of being followers of Apo (Abdullah Öcalan) was still
the same the aim was no longer a separate State based on a nation, but
a democratic nation. Violence was to be used in defense and not as a tool
for solution.On 10 April some 200 intellectuals,
writers, journalists, artists, academics and representatives of NGOs published
a joined declaration expressing their fear of an increasing nationalism
and a return to an atmosphere of violence. The declaration was published
under the headline of "We are concerned and warn"

On 15 June 151 intellectuals
published a leaflet calling on the PKK to stop its actions. The leaflet
stated inter alias: "Only in the last month 50 people lost their lives.
During the last 15 years about 30,000 human beings lost their lives in
what is called a 'low-level conflict' or 'dirty war'. We ask the PKK to
stop its actions without any pre-condition and call on the government to
take the necessary legal steps for everybody to participate in the political
life."On 19 June Fikret Bila reported
in his column in the daily Milliyet on a conversation with Justice Minister
Cemil Çiçek who commented on a meeting with ambassadors from EU countries
and the leaflet of intellectuals. The Justice Minister said inter alias
that it had been difficult to have the world agree that the PKK was a terrorist
organization. It had taken another 2 to 3 years to get the acceptance after
the PKK changed its name to Kongra-Gel. Cemil Çiçek said further
that the leaflet of intellectuals might be useful if it had an effect on
the opposite side. The opposite side were the terror groups. The State
or the government could not be the contact for such a call. On 22 June a total of 264
Kurdish intellectuals supported the call of Turkish intellectuals with
their signatures. Former deputy Tarık Ziya Ekinci spoke on a press conference
and said that a general amnesty and developments of the economy and social
and cultural affairs was a pre-condition for a solution. The Kurds in Turkey
had to freely enjoy their language and culture.On 10 August Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accepted the intellectuals who had called on the PKK
to put down their arms. He said that the Kurdish question just like many
other problems should be tackled under the general question of democratization
within the constitutional order of principles of the Republic. Regardless
of whether one called it the social demands of the citizens of Kurdish
origin or the question of the Southeast one should avoid linking this question
to terror.On 16 August Saygı Öztürk
reported in the daily Hürriyet that following the declaration of the Prime
Minister the General Staff had formed a working group to present a report
to the National Security Council (NSC). The journalist stated that the
report would not speak of the Kurdish question but the problem with terror.
The military experts would stress that the main problem of the region was
the underdevelopment. An unnamed expert had told the journalist that there
were no demands for another state of emergency. In separate news Hürriyet
quoted from the report that was presented to the NSC before its meeting
on 23 August. The reports stated inter alias that the organization (PKK)
was short before dissolving itself. The question of leadership was imminent
and Osman Öcalan who had left the organization was like a ricochet. Murat
Karayılan, Duran Kalkan and Cemil Bayık were trying to stay at the top
of the organization by founding groups to their own ends. Prior to a visit of the
Prime Minister to the region Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met 57 mayors from the
DEHAP. Speaking on behalf of the mayors, Osman Baydemir, Mayor of Diyarbakır,
said that the tension in the region was increasing day by day. The atmosphere
of clashes was harmful for the economy as well as the state of law. The
mayors presented the following findings for a solution to the Kurdish question:- the Kurdish question cannot
be reduced to a problem of underdevelopment, even though the economic problems
are important;- in order to establish
peace and development a civilian project has to be defined that includes
the social, cultural, political, economic and judicial dimensions;- arms have to be silenced
in order to develop a democratic discussion, feeling of sympathy and security;- reforms of laws and the
Constitution as well as administrative reforms have to be made to continue
the process of democratization;- problems of internal displacement,
harm to the environment, poverty, unemployment, health and accommodation
have to be solved. Positive discrimination is needed for the region;- one should refrain from
the state of emergency or changes to the anti-terror law that would take
us away from the harmonization with the EU;- the solution will be easier,
if local and central administration and the organizations of civilian society
(NGOs) work close together.On 19 August Kongra-Gel
announced in Belgium that there would be a time without actions between
20 August and 20 September during which militants of the HPG would only
defend themselves. The initiative of intellectuals had created a positive
atmosphere for a solution and Kongra-Geld wanted to show that the organization
was not against the State and carried an understanding of solving the question
of democratization in Turkey within its unity.On 20 August Murat Yetkin
commented in the daily Radikal on the press conference in Brussels. Belgium
had not allowed the President of Kongra-Gel, Zübeyir Aydar (former deputy
of the Democracy Party DEP) to appear at the press conference since there
was an arrest warrant issued in 2004 against him. Police officers had come
to the international press center and informed the journalists that Aydar
would be arrested and deported to Switzerland where he had been recognized
as a political refugee. On the other hand the Movement
for a Democratic Society lead by former deputies of DEP (Leyla Zana and
3 others) had not been able to grasp the message from European countries
such as the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Austria to clearly separate
them from the PKK and not be become another front organization such as
KADEK or Kongra-Gel. The only positive development was the declaration
of about one hundred NGOs in Diyarbakır who declared that they supported
the speech of the Prime Minister of 12 August in saying that the solution
of the question was mainly a question of democracy.Later Kongra-Geld extended
the period without actions until 3 October when the negotiations between
Turkey and the EU were to start. During the 43 days without actions 43
militants were killed according to a later announcement of Kongra-Gel.

The Killing
of Hikmet FidanOn 17 February Kemal Şahin
(code name: Kemale Sor) who had left Kongra-Gel and joined the Patriotic
Democratic Party (Partiya Welatparezen Demokraten = PWD) of Osman Öcalan
was killed near Süleymaniye (North Iraq). The PWD claimed that HPG militants
killed him.On 6 July Hikmet Fidan,
former deputy chair of the closed down HADEP, was killed in Diyarbakır.
Apparently two people shot him in his neck. First statements claimed that
there was no political dimension in the attack.However, the PWD claimed
on its website that the PKK had killed Hikmet Fidan. The declaration also
attributed the killing of Kemal Şahin and Sipan Rojhilat to the PKK. In November the public prosecutor
in Diyarbakır indicted three people in connection with the killing. The
indictment stated that Hikmet Fidan had participated in a meeting of the
PWD in Northern Iraq and had been given the duty of organizing the PWD
in Turkey. Veysi Akgönül and Mustafa Kemal Ok had also been at the meeting
in Northern Iraq and had been instructed to found a print office in Diyarbakır
in order to finance the organization. Later Veysi Akgönül had been threatened
by the PKK and accepted to kill Hikmet Fidan. He had asked Fırat Karahan
for help. He had called Hikmet Fidan to meet him, but being too afraid
himself the PKK member Serkan Şitilay had carried out the killing. The indictment asked for
life imprisonment for Fırat Karahan and a sentence of 10 years' imprisonment
for Mustafa Kemal Ok. Veysi Akgönül who had provided information to clarify
the crime should not be punished. The file of Serkan Şitilay who had not
been captured was separated. On 28 December Diyarbakır
Heavy Penal Court No. 4 started to hear the case. Mustafa Kemal Ok testified
to the effect that after the killing Eyüp Karageçi (former executive of
DEP) had called him and told him to say that the PKK had committed the
killing. The defendant Fırat Karahan stated that he had been tortured in
custody. The prosecutor Muammer Özcan had threatened him to put him in
prison for 36 years, if he did not sign the statement. Therefore, he had
used his right to remain silent. The son of Hikmet Fidan,
Tarık Fidan, participated as sub-plaintiff. He stated that Mehmet Ören,
Murat Karayılan and Zübeyir Aydar had called his father over the phone
and threatened him. Tarık Fidan maintained that Abdullah Öcalan was informed
about the killing. In an article in the daily
Cumhuriyet of 19 July the journalist Mehmet Faraç raised some questions
on killings within the PKK. He pointed at parallels of this killing to
the killing of Musa Anter who, too, was called from the hotel his was staying
in to a meeting with a person he knew for his contacts to the PKK. The
article attributed the following killings to the PKK: Engin Sincer, Halit
Sofi, Hayrettin Aydın (treasurer of the PKK), his brother Nurettin Aydın,
Mahmut Arda, Sema Yıldız, Aydın Şahin, Sevim Adıbelli, Sedat Bayraktar,
Levent Buker, Mustafa Yaygır, Doktor Rodi Demirkapı, Mustafa Günaydın,
Murat Bayun, Faruk Bozkurt, Berzan Dürre, Nazime Adtürk, Yücel Zeydan,
Mehmet Emin Unay, Rahman Şen, Mamosta Osman (Osman Hoca), Helat Soran,
Erdal İlaslan, Salih Tatoğlu, Fatoş Sağlamgöz, Muhammed Aslan, Cemal Polat,
Murat Yücel, his lover Filiz Yerlikaya and Hüseyin Morsümbül.

The Law
to Re-Integration and other IssuesOn 30 March Interior Minister
Abdülkadir Aksu answered a question of Orhan Eraslan, deputy from Niğde
on Law 4959 on the Re-Integration into Society. He stated that 4,340 members
of illegal organizations had applied to benefit from the law. Among them
2,980 had already been imprisoned. 1,529 prisoners had belonged to separatist
organizations; 1,095 belonged to organizations with a religious background
and 356 to organizations of the extreme left.In February the public prosecutor
in Ankara finished the investigation into the advertisement that had been
placed in the International Herald Tribune and Le Monde under the headline
of "What do the Kurds want?" The prosecutor decided against charges on
the grounds that the advertisement signed by 203 people was within the
scope of freedom of expression.In February the Ministry
for the Interior decided against the application of former PKK executive
Şemdin Sakık to benefit from the Repentance Law. The letter to Diyarbakır
Heavy Penal Court No. 6 stated that, although Sakık had provided information
that helped to crack down on the organization, he had given orders for
the killing of hundreds of people. On 20 May 1999 Şemdin Sakık and his
brother Arif Sakık had been sentenced to death. After the death penalty
was lifted in Turkey the sentence was commuted to aggravated lifer imprisonment.On 22 February Sohbet Şen,
İmam Özpolat and Ali Şükran Aktaş were detained when they wanted to meet
deputies from the CHP in the GNAT. All three had returned to Turkey in
1999 on the call of Abdullah Öcalan as a "peace group" and had been convicted
as members of an illegal organization. On 23 February they were remanded
on charges of membership of an illegal organization. On 11 May Ankara Heavy Penal
Court No. 11 started to hear their case. Defense lawyer Hamit Geylani said
that articles of newspapers published abroad and letters written to the
deputies could not count as evidence. The prosecutor insisted on charges
under Article 314 new TPC for membership of an armed organization.In January Nuriye Kesbir,
member of PKK/Kongra-Gel, was released in the Netherlands after a court
in The Hague had ruled against an extradition to Turkey. In Germany Remzi
Kartal, deputy chair of Kongra-Gel was released on 28 February. He had
been arrested in Nuremberg on 22 January since a demand for extradition
existed for him.In August Diyarbakır Penal
Court No. 2 acquitted the lawyer Muharrem Şahin from charges of resisting
the police and staging an illegal demonstration. The lawyer had been detained
under beatings when he wanted to participate in the autopsy of Engin Sincer,
an executive of KADEK who had died under suspicious circumstances on Kandil
Mountain on 7 September 2003.The public prosecutor in
Bitlis started an investigation against Mehmet Can Demir, chair of DEHAP
for the province, because a calendar of the organization for the year 2005
had included Kurdish names.In March the Ministry for
the Environment and Woods renamed some animal species, saying foreign scientists
opposed to its territorial integrity had chosen their former names with
ill intent. A sheep species previously known as Ovis Armeniana was renamed
Ovis Orientalis Anatolicus. A species of red fox was renamed as Vulpes
Vulpes rather than Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica.

Attacks
on KurdsIn the night of 2 August
Kurdish construction workers and immigrants from Bulgaria had a fight in
Görüklü town in Nilüfer district (Bursa). The immigrants beat Hakkı Pala,
Abdurrahman Erdem, Mehmet Kapçak and Barış Dursun and damaged many cars.
A crowd of some 000 people blockaded the road between Bursa and Balıkesir
and shouted slogans against Kurds. The police detained 13 people including
9 Kurdish workers.Following the funeral of
Corporal Kemal Etiler who had been killed in a clash near Uludere district
(Şırnak) on 3 August the office of DEHAP and Kurdish street vendors in
Kemalpaşa district (Bursa) were attacked by right-wingers on 4 August.In the night of 5 August
the house of DEHAP member Ubeydullah Sayılgan in Bursa was attacked. Some
50 persons gathered outside the house and shot into the air. The family
alleged that the police arrived only at 2am, although they had been informed
at 9pm.On 8 August CNN Türk reported
that the Ministry of the Interior had issued a circular on how to prevent
provocative and common incidents. The circular pointed at the crisis with
the Turkish flag (in Mersin, see the chapter on Freedom of Assembly) and
stated that there was an attempt to misuse national feelings and create
an atmosphere of chaos. The aim was to create a situation of discrimination.
The measures to prevent such incidents were mainly based on better coordination
among the security forces and an improvement of contacts to NGOs and the
press. On 19 August the police
in Elbistan (Maraş) raided the offices of DEHAP and detained Hüseyin Kısa,
chair for the district, Ali Polat and two persons with the first names
of Faruk and Oğuz. They were released after five hours. Metin Gönülşen,
DEHAP chair for the province, stated that the police tried to provoke the
population saying that the detainees had planted bombs and were terrorists.
A group of 20 people had gathered close to the office and insulted the
members of the party.On 21 August a discussion
with police officers in Ürkmez town, Seferihisar district (İzmir) resulted
in the detention of Naim Doğan Balgün, Veysel Ferit Balgün, İbrahim Bedük,
Halil Bedük and Uğur Tanık and a lynch attempt on the pretext that they
were members of the PKK. In prison Naim Doğan Balgün told lawyers of the
HRA:"A sergeant of the gendarmerie
objected to me parking in front of the pastry shop. I objected when he
used heavy language stating that women were in the car. Because of the
dialect the sergeant asked for my hometown and I said that I had come from
Diyarbakır. He started to curse at the Kurds calling all of us members
of the PKK that he would f. Several people gathered and when the sergeant
attacked me with a pen the crowd also walked towards us. We were taken
into a vehicle of the gendarmerie. Another sergeant beat me on my head
and they left the door open for others to hit us."After the incident Seferihisar
Governor Mehmet Gödekmerdan stated that the citizens were sensitive on
movements against the State and the army. Mustafa Rollas, chair of the
HRA in İzmir stated that there were allegations that that the mayor of
Ürkmez and a lieutenant of the gendarmerie were directly involved in the
incident. İbrahim Bedük, Halil Bedük and Uğur Tanık were released on 6
September, Veysel Ferit Balgün and Naim Doğan Balgün were released on 14
September.On 5 September a fight broke
out among workers collecting hazelnuts in Karatavuk village, Akçakoca district
(Düzce). Abdulrezak Özdemir from Şırnak province died and the woman Şükran
Yiğit was injured. The headman of the village claimed that the fight occurred
when the workers from Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia shouted slogans
in favor of the PKK. The daily Özgür Gündem on the other hand claimed that
right-wingers attacked the Kurdish workers.Representatives of the gendarmerie
said that 15 workers from the Adana and inhabitants of Karatavuk village
had a discussion and one unidentified person shot from his house killing
Abdulrezak Özdemir and injuring Şükran Yiğit.The student Deniz Tekin
alleged that right-wingers attacked him in a students' hostel in Eskişehir
on 31 December because he was a Kurd. He had been sitting in the canteen
when someone asked him to come outside and five to six people had attacked
him. He had informed the administration of the hostel. A police officer
had appeared and asked for his hometown. Because of this behavior he had
not filed an official complaint.

The Trial
of the Deputies of the Democracy PartyOn 25 February Ankara Heavy
Penal Court No. 11 continued to hear the case of the former deputies from
the Democracy Party (DEP), Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Doğan and Selim
Sadak. Defense lawyer Yusuf Alataş stated that the penal code and the code
of criminal procedures had been amended and the proceedings should be carried
out according to new legislation. During the hearing of 22
April presiding judge Orhan Karadeniz maintained that the defendants had
not made statements for a long time and the proceedings were protracted.
Defense lawyer Yusuf Alataş said that the indictment had asked for a conviction
of his clients under Article 125 old TPC, but during the new trial the
charges had changed to Article 168 old TPC. He demanded that a new indictment
should be prepared. The Court decided to hear eight witnesses of the defense,
a public witness, Sedat Edip Bucak, former deputy of the DYP and Halit
Aslan, a witness of the prosecution. During the hearing of 23
May it turned out that the invitations to Sedat Bucak and Halit Aslan had
not received a reply and nothing had been done in the case of the witnesses
of the defense since the addresses were not known. The Court decided to
ask experts for a transcription of recordings of the Turkish Radio and
TV Institution (TRT) including experts to transcribe the Kurdish parts
of the conversations. During the hearing of 1
July defense lawyer Yusuf Alataş objected to the decision of the Court
to ask experts for a transcription of recordings and said that during the
first round of hearings three teams of experts had concluded that it was
impossible to definitely attribute the recordings to certain persons. The
Court turned down the objection of the lawyer. On 7 October former deputy
Sedat Bucak testified. He repeated his statement that he first had given
in 1994. The History of the TrialThe defendants Leyla Zana,
Orhan Doğan and Hatip Dicle were elected deputies for Diyarbakır province
in the elections of 20 October 1991. Selim Sadak entered parliament as
deputy for Şırnak province. In December 1991 the public prosecutor in Ankara
asked the GNAT to lift the immunity of these and another 18 deputies. In
March 1994 the joint Commission of Constitution and Justice agreed to lift
the immunity of Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Sırrı Sakık, Ahmet Türk, Orhan
Doğan, Selim Sadak and Mahmut Alınak (all deputies for DEP). On 17 March
1994 Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Sırrı Sakık, Ahmet Türk, Orhan Doğan and
Mahmut Alınak were arrested. In June 1994 the public
prosecutor at Ankara SSC indicted the deputies under Article 125 old TPC
accusing them of treasury, the attempt to separate part of Turkey and being
connected to the PKK: The prosecutor asked for the death penalty. Selim
Sadak and Sedat Yurttaş were arrested on 2 July 1994 after the reasoned
verdict of the Constitutional Court to ban the Democracy Party (DEP) had
been published on 30 June. These two deputies were also charged under Article
125 with the demand of the death penalty. There cases were combined with
the trial against the other deputies. On 8 December 1994 Ankara
SSC convicted Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Doğan, Selim Sadak and Ahmet
Türk under Article 168/2 old TPC and sentenced them to 15 years' imprisonment.
Sedat Yurttaş was convicted under Article 169 old TPC and sentenced to
7.5 years' imprisonment and Sırrı Sakık and Mahmut Alınak were sentenced
under Article 8 of the ATL and sentenced to 3.5 years' imprisonment and
fined TL 60 million. Sakık and Alınak were released. On 26 December 1995
the Court of Cassation quashed the verdicts against Ahmet Türk, Sedat Yurttaş,
Sırrı Sakık and Mahmut Alınak, but confirmed the verdicts against Zana,
Dicle, Doğan and Sadak.On 20 July 2001 the European
Court of Cassation passed its judgment on the case and ruled that the trial
against the four convicted deputies had been unfair. This opened the way
to a re-trial. On 9 July 2004 the Court of Cassation ordered the release
of the defendants who otherwise would have been released in June 2005.
The trial did not conclude in 2005.Human Rights in the Region
after the State of Emergency (OHAL) was liftedSince 30 November 2002 the
state of emergency that had been declared on 10 July 1987 (replacing martial
law) is no longer in force, but human rights violations continue in the
region.The PKK confessor Abdülkadir
Aygan continued to reveal details on political killings in the region.
He first had presented details in 2004. Details on his revelations can
be found in the chapter on The Right to Life and Personal Security.

Mass GravesIn November 2004 a mass
grave with the bones of 11 people was found near Alaca village in Kulp
district (Diyarbakır). In January former PKK militant Arif Sakık stated
that this could be PKK members who had been punished as agents. If the
remains of the persons had been found under a certain tree he would be
able to identify the place.In March Deputy Prime Minister
Mehmet Ali Şahin answered a question tabled by independent deputy from
İstanbul, Mehmet Emin Şirin related to the mass grave in Kulp district.
The answer included statement of the Ministry of the Interior, the Defense
Ministry, the General Staff, the Justice Ministry and the secret service
MİT. The General Staff maintained
that the prosecutor in Kulp had been investigating the claim of 11 villagers
who "disappeared" in Kulp district in 1993. The investigation was still
continuing and allegations that the Armed Forces might be involved in such
an incident aimed at weakening the security forces. The Justice Ministry alleged
that the persons found in the grave had been killed by the PKK, but the
organization tried to attribute the killings to the armed forces. In February allegations
were raised that the corpses of four PKK militants had been buried in the
garden of the gendarmerie station in Yedisu district (Bingöl). The daily
Özgür Politika quoted a soldier named Mustafa Bayram who said that in 2000
five PKK militants had been captured and four of them had been alive. They
had been questioned and then shot in front of the gendarmerie station.
The former soldier alleged that more corpses might have been buried in
the garden that was surrounded with mines.After the statement of Mustafa
Bayram the HPG declared that near Goma Kotan hamlet in Yedisu district
one militant had been killed and four militants had been shot after being
apprehended alive. The names of three of the militants were given as Fahrettin
Cem, Tahir Sankut and Hulusi Yıldız. The family of Hulusi Yıldız asked
the HRA in Muş for help to establish the whereabouts of him. The brother
Erkan Yıldız said: "On 17 November 2000 a police officer in Varto district
showed us a photograph suspecting that it was my brother and said that
he was being held at Yedisu Gendarmerie station. The picture did not show
my brother. We went to Yedisu Gendarmerie Station, but were not allowed
in. Soldiers said that two corpses were at the station. However, we were
sent to Karlıova Gendarmerie Station. Here they showed us some photographs,
but my brother was not among them. Since then we have not received any
information on whether he is alive or dead."In May the corpse of Hulusi
Yıldız was exhumed from a place close to the garden of Yedisu Gendarmerie
Station. The relatives had asked the prosecutor in Kiğı for help and he
ordered the exhumation. Tahsin Yıldız, a relative of Hulusi Yıldız said:
"The gendarmerie station is surrounded by barbed wire, but the graveyard
is on the other side of the road that passes the station. We were told
that 14 families already found their relatives here. There are still another
30 graves all with numbers and registered.In September the weekly
Azadiya Welat published news that between Demir and Kamişlo villages in
Kulp district (Diyarbakır) a mass grave with the remains of 9 PKK militants
had been found. A person named Dılşa İldeniz had told the paper: "On 21
September 1998 12 militants were killed in the region. We went there two
days later and found the corpses of 9 militants. We later covered them
with earth. The whole village knows about this grave. Soldiers took away
3 corpses." The names of some of the killed persons were given as Mehmet
Şirin İnatçı, Mehmet Bozan, Mehmet Özdemir and three persons with the code
names of "Piling" (from Diyarbakır-Hazro), "Xwendewan" (from Diyarbakır-Bismil)
and "Hawar" (form Syria). In 2005 allegations were
raised that 7 PKK militants had been killed in a clash near Akçalı (Sewqan)
village in Başkale district (Van) in November 1997. Soldiers and members
of a special unit had driven over them with armored vehicles and buried
them in Çavkan quarter (Başkale).On 27 November a mass grave
was found in Savur district (Mardin). The Commission for Unsolved Killings
in Diyarbakır Bar Association and the prosecutor in Savur carried out an
inspection close to Dereiçi village where bones had been found. In the
first place two skulls and various other bones were found. On 29 November
an expert of the Forensic Institute inspected the bones and stated that
they might belong to six different persons. Testifying to the prosecutor
in Savur the former commander of Dereiçi Gendarmerie Station, Sergeant
T.K. said that during a clash on 21 June 1995 seven militants had been
killed. They had asked the headman of a village with Syriacs to bury them
there, but the headman had not given permission and, therefore, they had
been buried close to the station.The names of the killed
militants were given as Mehmet Aktay, Şeymus Akboğa, Mehmet Akan, Serhat
Özbahçıvan, Hafsat Aslan, Sadık Akçakoca and Hatice Şimşek (Menife Coşkun).
The grave of Hatice Şimşek was not known. On her fate Sergeant T.K. said:
"We were informed of another corpse close to the place of the clash and
informed the prosecutor. We went there together and found a corpse that
was burned because of the fire that had broken out as a result of the bombs
that had been thrown."Diyarbakır Bar Association
received allegations that the female militant Hatice Şimşek had been captured
alive and died on 1 August 1995, when she stepped on a mine while showing
the security forces some places. On 23 August İlhan Şut spoke
at a press conference of the HRA in İstanbul. He stated that his relative
Ferhat Şut who had been killed in a clash between Iranian soldiers and
PKK militants in July 2004 had secretly been buried. On 27 June they had
been informed that the corpse was in Yüksekova district (Hakkari). They
had identified him, but the soldiers had buried him secretly. The names
of further killed PKK militants were given as İkram Ergül, Abdurrahim Bulut
and Lokman Ergün. Threats against human
rights activist Hüseyin AygünHüseyin Aygün, former head
of the Tunceli Bar Association, has worked with victims of human rights violations including
torture and "disappearances". In 2005 he was working on behalf of the families
of seven people who "disappeared" from Midrik village in Tunceli while
Turkish army commandos were operating in the area in September 1994. He
and other lawyers working on the case called for further investigations
into these "disappearances". Their efforts to draw attention to this case led
to it being raised recently at the Human Rights Commission of the Turkish
Parliament.On 3 February, the Commander
of Gendarmerie Forces in Tunceli province visited the workplace of a relative
of Hüseyin Aygün. The Commander told the relative that that Hüseyin Aygün
was "a traitor to the country" and "an enemy of the state". The Commander
also claimed that "soon you'll see that we have discredited him". At a
meeting with Hüseyin Aygün on 7 February, the Gendarmerie Commander made
similar statements, and told the lawyer that: ".we know you well, you are
under every stone, our institution considers you very negatively. your
family are good, but why are you like this? Don't go against us in every
incident. OK, you are doing your job but don't do it any more  just leave
it to others".On 11 February, Hüseyin
Aygün was visited by three members of the gendarmerie wearing plain clothes,
who told him that the Gendarmerie Commander wished to meet with him again.
When Hüseyin Aygün telephoned the Gendarmerie Commander to find out more,
the Commander reportedly tried to blackmail him, saying that "I have in
my hands some solid evidence, this time there's no saving you. However,
I'm hesitant as to whether or not I should transfer these files to the
Prosecutor. perhaps if you listen to us we can come to some agreement with
you."(The text was taken from
an Amnesty International report: AI Index: EUR 44/006/2005 of 15 February
2005, full report under: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR440062005?open&of=ENG-TUR
and update under: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGEUR440252005?open&of=ENG-TUR)

Further
Incidents and PressureDr. Mehmet Arsal Öztürk
working at the Health Centre in Hozat district (Tunceli) was detained on
6 January after he had a discussion with the prosecutor Mehmet Falsa. The
prosecutor had entered the office when Dr. Öztürk was examining a patient.
The physician had asked the prosecutor to leave the room. Reportedly Dr.
Öztürk was sent to the hospital for mental health in Elazığ on the assumption
that he was mentally ill.The daily Özgür Politika
reported on 23 January that soldiers of the gendarmerie had raided six
villages in Özalp district (Van) on 8 and 9 January. Reportedly they had
gathered the inhabitants in the school and told them not to cross over
to Iran any more. Under the pretext of smuggling they were indeed supporting
the PKK. If they stopped the contacts with the villagers on the Iranian
side the PKK would be forced to leave there within three days. On 17 February the DEHAP
officials in Bulanık district (Muş) Ali Topçu, M. Şah Karaçelik, Maşallah
Selvi, Selahattin Karabalık, Kurban Kaya and Bahattin Bingöl were detained.
First they were stopped on their way to a meeting and accused of false
papers for the car. Later the accusations turned into insult to the General
Staff. The politicians alleged to have been kept waiting in the snow for
three hours.On 14 January Düzali Seyrek
and Kenan Yeşiltepe were hindered to go to Ataçınar village in Mazgirt
district (Tunceli). Soldiers told them that there were operations in the
region and they might not go to their village. They were forced to wait
for three hours and their IDs were confiscated. At another point they were
again forced to wait for half an hour.In Siirt Hızır Ekinci alleged
that he was rejected a green card for health services free of charge. Sergeant
Kemal Koç from Aydınlar Gendarmerie Station had told him that his son İlyas
Ekinci (born 1984) had a record of supporting the PKK. Vetha Aydın, chair
of the HRA in Siirt said that many people were not given a green card either
because they were members of DEHAP or because they had supported the PKK. On 5 April juveniles of
the Keçan and Haruna tribe clashed in İdil district (Şırnak). Adil Abay
was knifed to death. He was said to be a relative of former mayor Abdurrahman
Abay. After the incident juveniles of the Keçan tribe three stones at the
shop of Hüseyin Bayram (from the Haruna tribe) and the house of Mayor Resul
Sadak (DEHAP).On 17 May soldiers of the
gendarmerie raided Yaprak (Tuti), Zümrüt (Pırpari) and Yünöüce (Melez)
villages in Lice district (Diyarbakır) and detained 53 people allegedly
in connection with a mine explosion in the region. They were released the
next day. One villager reported that the commander had told them to inform
him, if they saw anyone planting a mine. One sergeant had threatened them
to kill them, if only one finger of a soldier would be bleeding. On 18 May the gendarmerie
raided houses in Altınbaşak village in Yüksekova district (Hakkari) and
detained Necip Atak and Rıfat, allegedly because they were found in possession
of the book "To defend a People" by Abdullah Öcalan.On 22 May juveniles in İskenderpaşa
quarter of Diyarbakır clashed for an unknown reason with the police. Police
officers shot in the air, beat children on the street and raided two houses
without an arrest warrant. Shop owner Kenan Mutlu said: "I asked the police
officers to stop shooting. They came towards me and pointed at me with
a gun. They insulted me heavily."On 22 May members of a special
unit raided some houses in Kışla quarter of Yüksekova district (Hakkari).
Kıymet Bakır stated that her house was raided without permission. She had
been thrown on the ground and beaten on her shoulder that she had undergone
an operation. Later the police had come again twice.Süleyman Kızıltaş said that
he and the other people in his flat had been forced to lie on the ground.
When he asked for a reason for the raid he had been squeezed at his throat
and thrown out of the flat. On 31 May inhabitants from
Susuz village in Tekman district (Erzurum) clashed with soldiers who wanted
to detain relatives. The soldiers had searched the house of Metin Demir
and detained Fidan Demir, Ayşe Demir, Abdulkerim Demir and Adnan Demir.
The villagers protested at the detentions. The soldiers responded with
shots in the air. The villagers three stones at the soldiers. After the
incident many villagers escaped to a nearby forest. Reportedly the villagers
were not allowed to take injured people to hospital.In Yalova two families from
Muş and Rize clashed resulting in the death of Turan Kalaycı. Reportedly
Ahmet Artan (from Muş) went to the shop of Mustafa Ofluoğlu (from Rize)
on 5 June and asked his money (400 YTL) back. The discussion turned into
a fight and the police detained both men. After release Mustafa Ofluoğlu
called relatives and went to the shop of Ahmet Artan. The group shouted
slogans of "Down with the PKK". The police intervened and detained Cem
Su from the group around the Ofluoğlu family.Some 50 members of the Artan
family stormed the police station and injured Cem Su with a knife. Officially
this incident happened outside the police station. The group also entered
the shop of Mustafa Ofluoğlu and injured Turan Kalaycı. He died in hospital.
The police detained 13 people. Later Y. Artan and H. Artan were arrested
for having killed Turan Kalaycı. The police surrounded the quarters in
town with Kurdish population.On 8 June unidentified people
opened fire on a minibus near Geçitli village (Hakkari). The woman Firuze
Özbek (46) was injured.Necdet Yeşil filed an official
complaint stating that members of JİTEM had shot at his car between Esendere
and Yüksekova district (Hakkari) on 7 June. At the entrance of Dilimli
village two cars with civilians had tried to stop him and the people in
these cars shot at him when he did not stop. Necdet Yeşil stated that he
would recognize the officers of JİTEM if he would see them.On 9 June soldiers and village
protectors raided Burmataş hamlet, close to Hasanova district in Karlıova
district (Bingöl). They allegedly beat the villagers and fired shots into
the air (for details see the chapter on Personal Security).On 11 June soldiers, members
of a special team and village guards raided Topyıldız hamlet of Yapraklı
village in Gürpınar district (Van) and detained Dırbaz Duman, Havva Duman,
Caziye Duman, Yusuf Başaran, Mehiman Duman and a child. They were released
after testifying. Some villagers complained to the Human Rights Center
at Van Bar Association. They said that during the raid soldiers had insulted
them. Many people had been forced to take off their clothes and the soldiers
had looked at their soldiers to find out whether they had been carrying
heavy goods. Soldiers hindered students
from Dicle University to travel to Tunceli. The students were stopped at
Seyitli Bridge on 23 April and told that the governor had prohibited their
journey. Etem Şahin, Mayor of Suruç
district (Urfa) was reportedly not allowed to travel to Germany. On 23
May the governor's office sent him a letter stating that because of the
bad service in town and the dirt the mayor and Mehmet Özkan, member of
the parliament of the municipality were not allowed to go abroad.In a similar way Mukaddes
Kubilay, mayor in Doğubeyazıt district (Ağrı) was not allowed to participate
in a meeting in France.Erdoğan Alparslan, student
at the 100 Year University in Van alleged that soldiers exerted pressure
on his family on Aşağı Küpkıran village (Ağrı province). Soldiers of the
gendarmerie had gone to the house of his family and told them that their
son had left university and joined the PKK. On 22 June the soldiers
İdris Candan and Mehmet Ali Arslan died when a military vehicle drove on
a mine near Yukarı Toklu village in Taşlıçay village (Ağrı). Subsequently
the villagers in the region were banned from going to the meadows on the
plateau. Ağrı Governor Yusuf Yavaşcan confirmed the decision saying that
it had been taken on the demand of the soldiers. He alleged that terrorists
mixed with the shepherds and received support from them.At the end of June Ali Haydar
Çatakçin and İbrahim Çatakçin alleged that members of a special team attacked
them on their way back from a cemetery. One soldier had held a gun at the
neck of Ali Haydar Çatakçin and told him that they knew everything about
him and he should take care. Relatives had prevented that the two brothers
were detained and taken away in an armored vehicle. On 1 July soldiers conducted
an operation near Keklikdüze village in Saray district (Van) and allegedly
beat the shepherds Ecevit Karaer and Medeni Bilici on the accusation of
supporting the PKK.Davut Evin filed an official
complaint against the commander of Durak Gendarmerie Station in Şemdinli
district (Hakkari) stating that he had insulted him. On 4 July he had objected
to a raid of his house without a search warrant. The villager had heard
how badly he was insulted.In July Murat Zurel, living
in Yeşilbelen village in Karakoçan district (Elazığ) went to the HRA in
Elazığ and complained that soldiers and plain clothed detectives were constantly
following him. They had gone to relatives of his and threatened them that
he should leave the village. Zurel alleged that he was not safe when he
went to the district town, because he was constantly being followed.Bülent Yılmaz (30) living
in Ovacık district (Tunceli) alleged that he was kidnapped and tortured
on 10 July. He suspected that the kidnappers either belonged to JİTEM or
the police (for details see the chapter on personal security). On 18 July shots were fired
at the house of Şefik Yıldırım in Varto district (Muş). The shots were
reportedly fired from an armored vehicle. The next day police officers
came and asked the family not to file any complaint because they would
pay for the damage.On 19 July soldiers returning
from an operation fired at random in İnönü quarter of Tunceli. Fatma Demir
said that the windows of her house were broken and the children had been
screaming for fear.In Tunceli Barış Yığıt was
detained on allegations of being a member of the PKK. On 26 July he was
arrested on these charges. His mother Selvi Yığıt said that the bomb that
allegedly was found in their garden had been put their by soldiers. Suddenly
a soldier had held a bag in his hand and it had been said that there was
a bomb in it. There had been a sound, but no proper detonation and she
had heard the soldiers say that this had not been a bomb.DEHAP member Mahmut Kavak,
living in Çınarönü village in Savur district (Mardin) alleged that the
commander of Sürgücü Gendarmerie Station threatened him with death. Mahmut
Kavak said that he had gone to Beytüşşebap district (Şırnak) to get the
corpse of Mehmet Emin Sincar, a relative who had been killed in a clash.
On his return on 7 August he had been called at 11pm and the commander
had asked him to come to the gendarmerie station. The commander had asked
him why he went to Beytüşşebap and then had said that in his village there
had been an incident with a lieutenant. He would wish that a similar incident
happened and he would know what to do to him. Mahmut Kavak said that in
1997 Lieutenant Coşkun Telci had been killed in a clash and four villagers
had been tried in connection with the incident. He had been released from
prison about one year ago and since then he was frequently threatened.On 22 August soldiers of
the gendarmerie raided a wedding in Duruca town, Yazıhan district (Malatya)
on the pretext that a flag of the PKK had been displayed. Duran Boztepe
said that they had objected to the raid without a written order of a prosecutor.
The sergeant with the first name of Zekeriya had cursed them and threatened
to kill anyone who would move.Ali Erol, village guard
in Geçitli (Peyanış) village (Hakkari) alleged that police officers kidnapped
and tortured him on 12 October. He had left his village in the evening
to go to Hakkari. In Merzan quarters he had been stopped and civilian dressed
officers had taken him out of the minibus saying that he should testify.
They had taken him to an unknown place. Other passengers in the minibus
had informed DEHAP and lawyers. Lawyer Zeydin Kaya was told by Hakkari
Police HQ and the Command of the Gendarmerie that Ali Erol had not been
detained. Several people including Hakkari deputy Fehmi Öztunç called the
governor and chief of police. As a result Ali Erol was set free in Merzan
quarter.After release Ali Erol said:
"Four people detained me saying that they were police officers. I thought
I would be taken to Hakkari Police HQ. However, in their car I was laid
on the grounds and they stepped on my feet and neck blindfolding me. We
drove for about 20 minutes. I was taken to a building that I could not
see. Because of the smell it might have been close to the waste site. They
asked me many names of persons living in the village and accused me of
being a member of the PKK and the other villagers to assist me. I was constantly
beaten since I rejected their allegations. I was hit on my head with a
hard tool. Twice I heard shots at my back. They would have killed me there.
Only some phone calls saved me. Before they left me in Merzan quarter they
threatened me not to say anything wrong. Otherwise they would kill me."The prosecutor sent Ali
Erol to hospital and he was certified injuries requiring 22 days' sick
leave.Following an attack on the
gendarmerie station in Erenkaya village, Eruh district (Siirt) on 29 October
soldiers raided the village. They beat the villagers, threatened them and
exerted pressure on them to leave the village. The HRA sent a delegation
to the village to research the complaints. One villager told the delegation
that all males in the village had been taken to Erenkaya Gendarmerie Station.
With their hands behind their heads they had been forced to kneel down
and sit in one row. For one and half an hour they had been kept waiting
in this position. Afterwards their personal data and photographs were taken.
Only 15 out of 45 men were interrogated.The villagers added that
the headman Nurettin Yıldız had been taken to Eruh and soldiers had beaten
him. The commander had told him that he should be happy about this, because
the people would have been shot, if he had not been in command. The villagers
also complained that for two days their phone and electricity had been
cut and they had not been allowed to graze their sheep. The houses close
to the gendarmerie station had been destroyed and the owners had been forced
to sign papers stating that they had destroyed their houses themselves. Reports from Habur Border
Station on Silopi district (Şırnak) stated that police officers beat the
lorry driver İsmet Öztürk on 4 December. İsmet Öztürk had asked them for
the time when they would proceed. The police officers had beaten him with
sticks and truncheons and, when other drivers came to his rescue, they
had fired shots into the air. The driver Mahmut Koç stated that the police
officers kept them waiting because they expected to get bribes. Anyone
who would try to jump the queue would be fined 100 dollars.Reportedly Mehmet Mamuk
was threatened on 7 May when he wanted to return to Baldan village in Tunceli
district. He said that two people had stopped him and threatened to shoot
him because he was taking bread to the mountains. Mehmet Mamuk added that
he went back to Tunceli because of the threats. In December Mehmet Mamuk
was threatened again. He believed that the persons who threatened him belong
to the intelligence service. They had been three people who stopped him
with his car on his way to the village. They had asked him questions about
his daughter living abroad.On 16 December lawyer Erdal
Kuzu went to attend a hearing at Mardin Heavy Penal Court No. 1 against
13 soldiers charged in connection with the killing of Ramazan Demir and
the wounding of four people in Kovalı village, Derik district (Mardin)
in October 2003. He was informed that the case had been transferred to
Adana because of security reasons.

The System
of Village GuardsIn July Justice Minister
Cemil Çiçek answered a question tabled by Diyarbakır deputy Mesut Değer
who wanted to know whether secret statutes were still in force. The question
was based on Article 1(2) of Law 3011 that stated that statues concerning
the national security and were characterized as confidential were not published.Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek
pointed at law 442 on Villages that carried the provision that temporary
village guards might be employed and stated: "For 12 years temporary village
guards have been employed according to the amended second paragraph of
Article 74 to prevent terror. In that sense it is not advisable to publish
the Statute for Temporary Village Guards and details on who to be employed,
the scope of their duties and their education in the Official Gazette."In June Interior Minister
Abdülkadir Aksu answered a question by İzmir deputy Türkan Miçoğulları
on the situation of temporary village guards. Aksu stated that a total
of 57,757 village guards were employed in 22 provinces. These people received
an average wage of 365 YTL. The details for the provinces were listed as:
in Diyarbakır 5,187 village guards, in Şırnak 6,756, in Batman 2,887, in
Bingöl 2,511, in Bitlis 3,730, in Mardin 3,323, in Muş 1,860, in Siirt
4,661, in Van 7,320, in Hakkari 7,614, in Tunceli 368, in Adıyaman 1,485,
in Ağrı 1,838, in Ardahan 91, in Elazığ 2,083, in Gaziantep 555, in Iğdır
362, in Kilis 33, in Maraş 2,236, in Kars 558, in Malatya 1,365 and in
Şanlıurfa 934 village guards.Since the establishment
of the village guards system on 26 March 1985 a total of 2,284 village
guards had been charged with "terror offences", 934 with offences against
property, 1,234 with offences against individuals, and 420 with offences
of smuggling. Among the 4,972 accused village guards 853 had been put in
pre-trial detention. On 28 January Corporal Gökhan
Yaşartürk was killed in a clash near Akçay village (Şırnak). The daily
Özgür Politika reported that the corporal was killed accidentally by the
village guard with the first name of M. Ali.On 19 March village guards
killed Selahattin Günbey (13) in Düzce village, Nusaybin district (Mardin).
With his relatives Zeki Günbey (12) and Seyithan Gürkan (13) he had been
grazing sheep outside the village and village guards had asked them to
go to another place, before they shot at them. The villager Abdülhakim
Özdemir said about the incident:"First there was a discussion
among shepherds and some of them informed the village guards. Five of them
came and the children ran away. The village guard H.D. said that he would
not return unless he shot one of them. The children were hiding behind
a stone and when Selahattin Günbey raised his head to look for the village
guards he was hit with a bullet to his right eye."After the incident the village
guards Ahmet Dinç, Aburrahim Dinç and Hasan Dinç were detained and remanded
on 22 March. Meanwhile, a delegation of the HRA that wanted to investigate
into the incident was hindered by soldiers of the gendarmerie. They were
not allowed to enter Dırçomer village.The daily Özgür Politika
reported that six out of 10 village guards who had been convicted in connection
with the killing of eight villagers in Çalpınar village, Midyat district
(Mardin) on 20 April 1993 had been arrested. Their trial had been heard
at Denizli Heavy Penal Court No. 2 and in 2003 Tacettin Sakan, Mihdi Özbey,
Halit Aktar, Şehmus Seyde, Nevaf Aydın, Mehmet Sayhan, Ethem Sayhan, Tevfik
Akbay, Rahmi Kaçmaz and Abbas Taş had been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Among them Tacettin Sakan, Mihdi Özbey, Ethem Seyhan, Abbas Taş, Şehmus
Seyde and Halit Aktar had been arrested on 5 February. In October Nevaf
Aydın was arrested in İzmir.On 6 June a fight broke
out between the Bozkurt and Dursun families in Çatalipaşa village (Ağrı)
because of a dispute on ownership of land. The village guards Abdullah
Bozkurt and Sait Bozkurt were killed and Kemal Bozkurt was injured. The
village guard Kasım Dursun was arrested in connection with the incident.The village guard Abdullah
Aksu and his son Aziz Aksu reportedly beat Menci Şen (60) in Kuştepe village,
Güçlükonak district (Şırnak). On 13 April Menci Şen had warned the son
of Abdullah Aksu not to damage his garden. Reportedly Aziz Aksu started
to curse at Menci Şen and beat him particularly on his legs. Later Abdullah
Aksu came and hit Menci Şen with a stone.In mid-April the daily Özgür
Politika reported that village guards in Uzungeçit town, Uludere district
(Şırnak) were put under pressure not to quit their jobs. The gendarmerie
commander Zeki Es had accused them of having told everybody including the
TV station Roj TV about their intentions to put down their arms and now
they had to take them up again in order to restore the image of the State.The governor's office in
Şırnak issued a statement on the incident stating that the news that 72
temporary village guards wanted to lay down their arms was not correct.
Almost 10,000 village guards were continuing their duty in the Şırnak region.Rahmi Alkan, Sadi Kılınç
and İlhan Akbulut complained to the HRA in Hakkari and said that village
guards beat them when they wanted to go to a picnic near Ağaçdibi village
on 22 May. Rahmi Alkan said that two village guards had asked them why
they had not greeted them and they had replied that they were not obliged
to do so. The village guards had become angry and pointed their loaded
guns at them. When they left the picnic area another village guard had
come up to them in a car and started to beat them with the butt of his
rifle. Other people had rescued them from the hands of the village guards.On 1 June members of the
Mendi family from Günyurdu village in Güçlükonak district (Şırnak) were
attacked by six village guards from the Oral family when they worked on
their fields close to the border of Akçakuşak village. Şahin Mendi was
injured to his legs and had to be taken to hospital. The village guard Salih
Seyhan killed his son Ubeydullah Seyhan in Suçatı village, Dargeçit district
(Mardin) on 10 July with his gun.On 10 August the village
guard Ramazan Güler shot Şehmuz Özer in his throat in Derinsu hamlet, Kuyucak
village (Adıyaman). Özer died in Adıyaman State Hospital.On 13 August the village
guard Muhyettin Şengül was killed in Kovuktaş village, Hasköy district
(Muş). First statements accused the HPG of the killing, but later Muş Governor
İbrahim Hasçimen declared that his son had killed him and other villagers
had tried to protect him by stating that the incident had a terrorist background.On 28 August the temporary
village guard H.A. killed his wife M.A. and the visitor Z.A. in Sarıköy
village, Midyat district (Mardin).On 6 July village guards
attacked inhabitants of Çatma village in Yüksekova district (Hakkari).
The villagers Sinem Korkmaz and Mecit Anuk were wounded seriously. The
villagers stated that in 1994 the governor in Hakkari had settled the village
guards in a camp between Çatma and Kamışlı village. The village guards
were using the land of both villages and there was a constant tension among
them. In a statement of the HPG
it was alleged that village guards who had come to the gendarmerie stations
in Xalinke and Xerkaya villages in Başkale district (Van) opened random
fire on the villagers and injured one of them on 8 August. The village guards Fikret
Korkmaz, Süleyman Korkmaz, İsmail Korkmaz, Mehmet Korkmaz and Taha Korkmaz
were reportedly tortured because they refused to participate in an operation
in the Uzundere region in Çukurca district (Hakkari) on 1 September. Fikret
Korkmaz told the HRA in Hakkari that they had participated in an operation
that started on 16 August and lasted for 15 days. "During this time in
the mountains health problems started. We informed the commander and said
that we were not able to walk. NOC B. started to curse us and beat us.
They took away the arms we had got 15 years ago and threw us out of the
office."Mahmut Alıcı from Oğuldamı
village in Gürpınar district (Van) alleged that he was put under pressure
to become a village guard. He filed an official complaint on 21 April.
On 25 July he was informed that the prosecutor in Gürpınar had decided
not to bring any charges against the commanders of the gendarmerie in Van
and Gürpınar.Inhabitants of Kızılsu village
(Şırnak) alleged that the village guards Abdullah K. and Bakattin Ç. were
exerting pressure on them to become village guards. They were not even
allowed to leave their village.

Abdullah
ÖcalanOn 12 May the European Court
of Human Rights (ECoHR) passed its judgment on Abdullah Öcalan. The important
facts from the judgment as related in the press release of the same day
are:The case concerns an application
brought by a Turkish national, Abdullah Öcalan, who was born in 1949. He
is currently incarcerated in İmralı Prison (Bursa, Turkey). On 9 October 1998 he was
expelled from Syria, where he had been living for many years. From there
he went to Greece, Russia, Italy and then again Russia and Greece before
going to Kenya, where, on the evening of 15 February 1999, in disputed
circumstances, he was taken on board an aircraft at Nairobi airport and
arrested by Turkish officials. He was then flown to Turkey. On arrival in Turkey, he
was taken to İmralı Prison, where he was held in police custody from 16
to 23 February 1999 and questioned by the security forces. He received
no legal assistance during that period. His lawyer in Turkey was prevented
from traveling to visit him by members of the security forces. 16 other
lawyers were also refused permission to visit on 23 February 1999. On 23 February 1999 the
applicant appeared before an Ankara State Security Court judge, who ordered
him to be placed in pre-trial detention. It was not until the hearing on
4 June 1999 that the State Security Court gave the applicant permission
to consult the case file under the supervision of two registrars and authorized
his lawyers to provide him with a copy of certain documents. On 29 June 1999 Ankara State
Security Court found the applicant guilty of carrying out actions calculated
to bring about the separation of a part of Turkish territory and of forming
and leading an armed gang to achieve that end. It sentenced him to death,
under Article 125 of the Criminal Code. That decision was upheld by the
Court of Cassation. Under Law no. 4771, published
on 9 August 2002, the Turkish Assembly resolved to abolish the death penalty
in peacetime. On 3 October 2002 Ankara State Security Court commuted the
applicant's death sentence to life imprisonment.Decision of the CourtRight to have lawfulness
of detention decided speedily by a courtThe Government had raised
a preliminary objection that the applicant had failed to exhaust his domestic
remedies under this head. However, the Grand Chamber saw no reason to depart
from the Chamber's findings in this respect, notably as to the impossibility
for the applicant in the circumstances in which he found himself while
in police custody to have effective recourse to the remedy indicated by
the Government. Nor could the possibility of obtaining compensation satisfy
the requirement of a judicial remedy to determine the lawfulness of detention.
The applicant did not therefore have an effective remedy available to him
and there had accordingly been a violation of Article 5 § 4 of the Convention.No unlawful deprivation
of libertyThe Grand Chamber agreed
with the Chamber that the applicant's arrest on 15 February 1999 and his
detention had been in accordance with "a procedure prescribed by law" and
that there had, therefore, been no violation of Article 5 § 1.Right to be brought promptly
before a judgeThe Grand Chamber found
that the total period spent by the applicant in police custody before being
brought before a judge came to a minimum of seven days. It could not accept
that it was necessary for the applicant to be detained for such a period
without being brought before a judge. There had accordingly been a violation
of Article 5 § 3.Fair trialWhether Ankara State Security
Court was independent and impartialThe Grand Chamber noted
that the military judge on the bench of Ankara State Security Court which
convicted the applicant had been replaced on 23 June 1999. However, the
replacement of the military judge before the end of the proceedings could
not dispose of the applicant's reasonably held concern about the trial
court's independence and impartiality. There had been a violation of Article
6 § 1 in this respect.Whether the proceedings
before the State Security Court were fairThe Grand Chamber agreed
with the Chamber's findings that the applicant's trial was unfair because:
he had no assistance from his lawyers during questioning in police custody;
he was unable to communicate with his lawyers out of the hearing of third
parties; he was unable to gain direct access to the case file until a very
late stage in the proceedings; restrictions were imposed on the number
and length of his lawyers' visits; and his lawyers were not given proper
access to the case file until late in the day. The Grand Chamber found
that the overall effect of those difficulties taken as a whole had so restricted
the rights of the defense that the principle of a fair trial, as set out
in Article 6, had been contravened. This amounted to a violation of Article
6 § 1, taken together with Article 6 § 3 (b) and (c).The Grand Chamber further
held that it was unnecessary to examine the other complaints under Article
6 relating to the fairness of the proceedings.Treatment and conditionsConditions of the applicant's
transfer from Kenya to TurkeyThe Grand Chamber considered
that it had not been established beyond all reasonable doubt' that the
applicant's arrest and the conditions in which he was transferred from
Kenya to Turkey exceeded the usual degree of humiliation that was inherent
in every arrest and detention or attained the minimum level of severity
required for Article 3 to apply. Consequently, there had been no violation
of Article 3 on that account.Detention conditions on
İmralıWhile concurring with the
Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture's recommendations
that the long-term effects of the applicant's relative social isolation
should be attenuated by giving him access to the same facilities as other
high security prisoners in Turkey, such as television and telephone contact
with his family, the Grand Chamber agreed with the Chamber that the general
conditions in which the applicant was being detained at İmralı Prison had
not reached the minimum level of severity required to constitute inhuman
or degrading treatment within the meaning of Article 3. Consequently, there
had been no violation of Article 3 on that account.End of the press statement
of the ECoHR.In January the HRA and the
lawyers of Abdullah Öcalan separately applied to the Justice Minister to
have an independent team of experts examine the health situation of Abdullah
Öcalan. At the same time newspapers reported that Öcalan was visited by
a psychologist every fortnight. Quoting sources of the Justice Ministry
it was also stated that the room Abdullah Öcalan was staying in was well
equipped with sufficient light and air and that he had possibilities of
cultural and sports activities, benefited from health services and had
the right for fresh air, read books and newspapers and listen to the radio.Aysel Tuğluk stated as one
of Abdullah Öcalan's lawyers that they did not ask for a psychologist.
Their client had complained of problems with breathing and they had asked
for experts to examine him on this connection.Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek
answered a question tabled by CHP deputy from Antalya, Osman Özcan on whether
a ship had been provided for the lawyers of Abdullah Öcalan to visit him
on the island. The Minister said that on 23 September 2004 the ship called
"Tuzla" had been ordered at the disposal of the lawyers for their visits.
The ship had to be repaired to be used under all kinds of weather conditions. On 16 February the lawyers
of Abdullah Öcalan declared that they had not been able to meet their client
since 19 January. The next visit was only possible on 24 February. During
the year many visits of Abdullah Öcalan's lawyers and relatives did not
take place either because of bad weather or because of irregularities of
the ships.When reports appeared in
the press that the prison conditions of Abdullah Öcalan were absolutely
comfortable, Bekir Kaya, one of Abdullah Öcalan's lawyers made a declaration
and stated: "Abdullah Öcalan is held in a cell of 13 not 19 square meters.
He is allowed one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening to go
out for fresh air. It is not true that he is doing sports. He is only walking.
We are only allowed to take as much as two newspapers a day with a choice
among Milliyet, Hürriyet, Sabah and Radikal. He is allowed only three books
at a time. There is no right for open (not supervised) visits and phone
calls. Our demand to have a TV was rejected. There is no possibility to
provide food, only clothes are allowed. Our client does not benefit from
the canteen and shares the same food with the personnel. Compared to the
F-type prisons the conditions of our client are worse."During a press conference
on 26 January the deputy chief of the General Staff, İlker Başbuğ alleged
that Abdullah Öcalan was directing the PKK from prison. He complained that
no measures were taken against the lawyers. Following this declaration
news appeared in the press that investigations had been launched against
25 lawyers on charges of exceeding the limit of defense lawyers and holding
press conferences. On 18 February lawyer Okan
Yıldız from the Century Law Office stated in the daily Özgür Politika
that all lawyers of the office were under prosecution and lawyers who went
to visit Abdullah Öcalan just once were subjected to investigations under
the assumption that they were members of an illegal organization. The lawyer
added:"After each visit investigations
start. These cases restrict our right of defense. The dailies Tercüman
and Vatan publish false stories after each visit. We never made any declaration
to these papers, but we are held responsible for the false news."According to the new code
of criminal procedures (TCPC) that entered into force on 1 June 12 lawyers
were banned from visiting Abdullah Öcalan for one year. İstanbul Heavy
Penal Court No. 9 took the decision on 16 June and stated that in connection
with Article 7/2 of the ATL the lawyers Aysel Tuğluk, İrfan Dündar, Ahmet
Avşar, Doğan Erbaş, Hatice Korkut, Aydın Oruç, Mahmut Şakar and Türkan
Aslan had been banned from acting as defense lawyers of Abdullah Öcalan
for one year according to Article 151/3 of the TCPC. A similar decision
was taken by İstanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 14 on 22 June. The Court banned
the lawyers Okan Yıldız, Bekir Kaya, Devrim Barış Baran and Fırat Aydınkaya
for one year from acting as defense lawyers of Abdullah Öcalan.On 7 February lawyer İrfan
Dündar testified at İstanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 12 on charges of being
a member of an illegal organization and having forwarded instructions of
his client to the organization. The Court lifted the arrest warrant issued
in absentia. After testifying İrfan Dündar said that all lawyers were indicted
under the same accusation, but there was no such thing as Öcalan giving
directives to them or anybody else, because their talks were always conducted
in the presence of officials. On 29 March Diyarbakır Heavy
Penal Court No. 4 started to hear the case of İrfan Dündar and Mahmut Şakar,
defense lawyers of Abdullah Öcalan, on charges of being members of an illegal
organization. The hearing was adjourned under the directive to have the
testimony of the defendants been taken in İstanbulOn 31 March Ankara Heavy
Penal Court No. 11 acquitted İrfan Dündar, Mahmut Şakar and Mehmet Salih
Yıldız, Mayor of Yüksekova from charges of supporting an illegal organization
with speeches they made on Med TV in 1999. On 5 April the same court acquitted
İrfan Dündar and Mahmut Şakar from the same charges for another speech
they had made on Med TV.On 4 May the lawyer Bekir
Kaya was detained in Gemlik district (Bursa) where he had gone to visit
Abdullah Öcalan. Bekir Kaya testified in connection with a court case at
İstanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 11 on charges of having misused his duty
and disseminated propaganda for an illegal organization. Bekir Kaya was
released after testifying. On 6 May İstanbul Heavy
Penal Court No. 14 continued to hear the case of the lawyers Aysel Tuğluk,
Doğan Erbaş and Okan Yıldız on charges of having disseminated propaganda
for an illegal organization. The Court issued a ban on the defendant to
travel abroad. It was alleged that the decision was taken in order to prevent
the lawyers from attending the hearing at the European Court of Human Rights.On 11 May Muhammet Şakar,
brother of Mahmut Şakar was detained when he came to Turkey from Germany.
He was reportedly detained because of the phone numbers on his mobile. On 23 June İstanbul Heavy
Penal Court No. 9 heard the case of Hatice Korkut and Ahmet Avşar charged
with disseminating propaganda for an illegal organization. Hatice Korkut
said that she had not forwarded any information to newspapers, but had
answered questions of journalists when they called her. In 2005 notes on meetings
of lawyers with Abdullah Öcalan were published for 5 January, 19 January,
23 February, 16 March, 27 April, 4 May and 30 November (the texts in Turkish
can be found under http://www.welatparez.com/tr/arsiv/gorusmenotlari/).Over the year Abdullah Öcalan
also met relatives, mainly his brother Mehmet Öcalan. After such meetings
special attention was drawn to the health situation of Abdullah Öcalan.
For details on demonstration in favor of Abdullah Öcalan see the Chapter
on Freedom of Assembly.

Internal
DisplacementIt was announced that YTL
6.4 billion were spent in 2005 for the Project Return to the Village and
Rehabilitation. This project had been run by the General Directorate for
Village Service between 1994 and 1999 and since then by the Ministry of
the Interior. Since 1999 a total of YTL 26 trillion had been spent enabling
127,820 people to return to their villages.The Law to Compensate the
Damages from Terror and the Fight against Terror was enacted on 27 July
2004 with the aim of securing aid to victims of evacuations of villages,
people whose houses had been sent on fire and other damages during the
time of clashes without the necessity to raise their cases with the ECoHR.
The time for application was prolonged until 17 July 2005.On 23 May the daily Radikal
reported that 1,500 applications to the ECoHR concerned the evacuation
of village. The ECoHR had passed judgments in 24 cases and ruled that Turkey
had to pay YTL 4.8 million. The commission that were to deal with the application
on the Law for Compensation in Case of Damages of Terror had received 69,832
applications, but only dealt with 1,595 of them. In 1,253 cases they had
rejected the claim and only accepted 342 of them.In July Interior Minister
Abdülkadir announced that of 360,000 people who had been forced to leave
their villages 124,539 had returned. He sent a circular to the offices
of governors in the provinces of Adıyaman, Ağrı, Bingöl, Bitlis, Hakkari,
Muş, Tunceli, Van, Elazığ, Batman, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Siirt and Şırnak
where the Project to Return to the Villages was being implemented and stated
inter alias that meetings should be held with NGOs and projects of NGOs
should be supported. The solidarity association
with internal displaced persons, Göç-Der announced in July that of 3.5
million people who had been forced to leave their homes 80,000 were entitled
to benefit from the Law on Return to the Villages and just 2% of them had
received aid.In August Interior Minister
Abdülkadir Aksu answered a question tabled by CHP deputy from Diyarbakır,
Mesut Değer. He stated that 104,734 people had applied to benefit from
the Law on Compensation for Damages from Terror. The commission had decided
on 5,239 applications. They had accepted 1,190 applications and rejected
4,049 applications. A total of 781 people had signed an agreement and 755
of them had been paid TL 5.756 trillion.

Press statement
of Human Rights Watch (HRW) on 7 March: "Still critical": Prospects
in 2005 for Internally Displaced Kurds in Turkey (Ankara, March 7,
2005)  On a key benchmark for European Union membership, the Turkish government
has failed to honor pledges to help 378,000 displaced people, mainly Kurds,
return home more than a decade after the army forced them from their villages
in southeastern Turkey, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. On March 7-8, the European
Union's commissioner for enlargement, Olli Rehn, and a delegation of other
high-level EU officials will visit Ankara to discuss Turkey's membership.
The EU officials should press Turkey to take effective steps to facilitate
the return of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to southeastern Turkey,
where Turkish security forces expelled hundreds of thousands from their
villages during an internal armed conflict that raged during the 1980s
and 1990s.The 37-page report, "Still
Critical: Prospects in 2005 for Internally Displaced Kurds in Turkey,"
details how the Turkish government has failed to implement measures for
IDPs the United Nations recommended nearly three years ago. Since the European
Union confirmed Turkey's membership candidacy in December, the Turkish
government appears to have shelved plans to enact those measures.The report also details
how Turkey has overstated its progress on internal displacement in reports
to the European Commission. Before the European Union announced its decision
to open membership talks, the Turkish government sent the European Commission
statistics suggesting that the problem was well on its way to a solutiona
requirement Turkey must fulfill for full membership. Turkey claimed that
a third of the displaced had already returned, but Human Rights Watch revealed
that permanent returns in some places were less than a fifth of the government's
estimate."When we checked Turkey's
figures on helping the displaced return home, the numbers proved unreliable,"
said Rachel Denber, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe
and Central Asia Division. "Also, the bare figures don't convey how, thanks
to government inaction, villagers are returning to places that are practically
uninhabitable."In southeastern Turkey,
the government has failed to provide infrastructure such as electricity,
telephone lines and schools to returning communities, and has not provided
proper assistance with house reconstruction."What's worse, the government's
paramilitary village guards are attacking and killing returnees in some
parts of southeastern Turkey," added Denber. Numerous intergovernmental
bodies, as well as Turkish parliamentary commissions, have condemned the
village guard system, which was devised in the 1980s to combat the illegal
armed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK, now known as Kongra Gel). More than
58,000 paramilitary village guards remain on the government payroll. Human Rights Watch said
that the government's paramilitary guards have killed 11 returned villagers
in southeastern Turkey in the past three years.When the United Nations
examined the plight of the displaced in Turkey in 2002, it recommended
that the government establish a dedicated IDP unit, develop a partnership
with the international community for the resolution of IDP problems, and
provide compensation for the damages arising from the displacement. Nearly
three years later, the Turkish government has established no joint projects
with intergovernmental organizations, and there is still no central governmental
office responsible for IDPs. Last year, the Turkish parliament passed a
compensation law, but no payments have yet been made.It is now 18 years since
Human Rights Watch warned of the impending program of village destruction
in a 1987 report during the conflict in southeastern Turkey. The Turkish
army duly carried out its campaign with considerable violence, torturing,
"disappearing" and extrajudicially executing villagers in the process.
Human Rights Watch has since repeatedly criticized the Turkish government's
empty gestures in its return programs, issuing further reports in 1995
and 2002. "The Turkish state tried
to cover up what it did, and now it's subjecting the displaced to years
of delay," said Denber. "When EU officials arrive in Ankara, they need
to put the problem of the displaced at the top of their agenda." Human Rights Watch called
on the European Union to press the Turkish government to move ahead by
immediately approving an IDP project submitted last year by the United
Nations Development Program. In addition, Ankara needs to establish an
agency for IDPs that will take effective measures.Since the European Union
accepted Turkey's membership candidacy in 1999, human rights reform has
been a stop-start process in the country. Turkey still has much to do on
the protection of freedom of expression, freedom of religion, language
rights and protection against torture. "The predicament of the
displaced is the most pressing concern, but the Turkish government has
lost focus on its reform task as a whole," Denber noted. "Last week we
had three delegates observing trials of Ragip Zarakolu and Fikret Baskaya,
a publisher and a professor threatened with imprisonment for expressing
their nonviolent opinions."Preventing torture is another
area where the Turkish government seems to have run out of energy. Turkey
has made substantial improvement in recent years, but in order to combat
persistent incidents of torture and ill-treatment, the European Union recommended
in October 2004 that the Turkish government establish independent monitoring
of detention facilities. Five months later, Turkey has still not implemented
independent monitoring, even though the necessary legal mechanisms are
already in place.

In 2000, the European Union
presented Turkey with a list of benchmarksknown as the Accession Partnershipthat
Turkey had to meet to become a full member. This was revised in 2003, and
will be revised again later this year.On 23 February the daily
Özgür Politika reported that money of the project to return to the villages
had been spent for military reasons. The provincial parliament had discovered
that of TL 1.9 trillion sent in the years 2003 and 2004 a total of TL 35.6
billion had been spent for other purposes. The article stated that members
of parliament applied to the Interior Ministry stating that 11 readily
made houses had been distributed to people who were not entitled for such
accommodation. Governor Mustafa Erkal responded by saying that the money
had been spent within the project to return to the village. However, in
February members of parliament filed an official complaint against Governor
Ali Cafer Akyüz and civil servants of the Directorate for Special Administration.Deputy Governor of Diyarbakır,
Serdar Polat, stated that 14 people who had been harmed during the police
operation in the Hevsel Gardens had received YTL 8.179 in compensation.
He added that the commission would accept application without further documents
but it was difficult to get compensation in these cases.Between 4 and 6 May the
UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on the Human Rights of Internally
Displaced Persons Dr. Walter Kaelin visited Turkey. He asked to prolong
the Law on Compensation for Damages of Terror and expressed concern that
75% of 70,000 applications had been rejected.

SUPPORT TO THE DEVELOPMENT
OF AN IDP PROGRAMME IN TURKEYProject name: Support to
the Development of an Internally Displaced People Programme in Turkey Budget: USD 322,000Timeline: May 2005 - December
2006 What's the situation?Substantial internal displacement
took place in Southeast Turkey from 1985-1997 due to terror and armed conflict.
The involvement of the UN with the IDP issue is grounded in the 2002 mission
and the report of Mr. Francis Deng, the UN Secretary General's Special
Representative for Internally Displaced Persons. The Deng report notes
that while the Turkish Government discussed its efforts to bring about
return, programmatic attention paid to their current conditions has not
been systematic. The Deng report also emphasises the need for the Government
to clarify and publicise its policy on IDPs. Progress has been made on
a number of points including the institution of a survey on internal displacement.
The Turkish Government through its own resources has initiated the conduct
of the survey and designated the State Planning Organisation (SPO) to coordinate
it. SPO has contracted the Institute of Population Studies (IPS) of Hacettepe
University to undertake the study independently. While the survey is currently
the highest priority as the basis for the formulation of concrete programmes
for IDPs, it is vital that government momentum be maintained in defining
policy, developing administrative structures and establishing operational
modalities. What's our mission?With this project it is
aimed to assist the Turkish Government in developing a well defined IDP
return programme by: - providing consultancy
for the compliance of the development and implementation of an IDP survey
according to international standards; - piloting a project to
facilitate the government's efforts to support the return and reintegration
in one of the provinces in Southeast Turkey; - dissemination of the UN
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and it's annotations as well
as build NGO awareness and capacity to apply them; and - enabling UNDP to respond
to the technical and other expertise needs of the Government and the UNCT
on a demand basis.How are we doing this? UNDP Turkey is seeking to
build on UNDP's global capacity and experiences to support the Turkish
Government to ensure that the survey is developed and conducted in accordance
with international standards. This will be done through contracting international
and national technical expertise, which defines the critical benchmarks
where UNDP advocacy is needed in consultation with IPS and SPO. Before any programme can
be formulated to assist the return of IDPs, there is a need to develop
a process whereby the concrete reintegration needs of IDPs are identified
and assessed in a transparent way that contributes to sustainable return
and social reconciliation. The development of a pilot project will be designed
to address and strengthen participatory planning and programming processes
at the appropriate provincial and local levels, and will be the basis for
the formulation of a budgeted provincial plan for the provision of needs
related to IDP programming. UNDP will arrange for the
UN Guiding Principles and its Annotations, as well as a summary of key
Guiding Principles that are directly relevant to IDPs in Turkey to be available
in the Turkish language for distribution to Governors' offices, local and
central government, the police, gendarmerie, NGOs, the Provincial Assessment
Committees, and other professional organizations. Likewise, UNDP will engage
NGOs in specific awareness-raising and capacity development for IDP related
issues through a step-by-step approach, with gradual progression from building
and piloting the training module to expanding the target audience. UNDP will also work with
government and civil society partners to identify and respond to future
areas of support that may be required as the Government's efforts at addressing
IDP related issues further evolve and progress. UNDP's support under this
component may entail technical assistance including further project development
and implementation at the local level, support to training and awareness-raising,
and policy support and advice on issues related to international standards
and the Guiding Principles. (further details on the homepage of UNDP in
Turkey: http://www.undp.org.tr/)

Incidents and PressureOn 8 February the daily
Özgür Gündem reported that 45 headmen from villages in Pertek district
(Tunceli) had been forced to sign papers that their villages had not been
evacuated because of pressure but that people had left the villages for
economic reasons. Reports from İdil district
(Şırnak) stated that village guards exerted pressure on the Syriac İbrahim
Konutgan who had returned four years ago after staying in Germany for 17
years. Konutgan complained to the HRA in Diyarbakır and accused former
chair of the DYP in İdil, Şükrü (Hasan) Demirsoy, the former Mayor Murat
Dalmış, his brother Faysal Dalmış and others of putting him under pressure.
İbrahim Konutgan said that Faysal Dalmış and four of his sons had attacked
him on 7 March. He had filed an official complaint but at the police station
the accused had said that they attacked him because he had insulted the
State and then they were allowed to leave.In March inhabitants of
the villages Minyanis (Ayrancılar), Kültik and Arıdağ went to the Van branch
of Göç-Der and complained that they were put under pressure to become village
protectors. Their villages had been evacuated in 1994, but they had returned
in 2001. Göç-Der sent a delegation to the villages and took testimony of
several villagers.İkram Altıntaş from Minyanis
village said: "In 1994 soldiers evacuated our village with 43 families,
because we did not accept to become village guards. We returned 2001 with
our own possibilities. Since then there is pressure that we become village
guards. Six people were given arms as temporary village guards on the grounds
that this was done voluntarily. However, the gendarmerie told us that many
operations were carried out in the region and they could not guarantee
our security. It would be better, if we left the village. Hasan Hoçak rejected
to take up arms and two soldiers had taken him by his arms saying that
they would take him to the gendarmerie station. Hasan Hoçak then accepted
arms." The report of Göç-Der drew
attention to the poverty in the villages and demanded that schools and
other facilities should be erected for the villagers to live in dignity.On 25 May the daily Özgür
Politika reported that soldiers tried to force people to leave the plateau
near Yolmaçayır village in Başkale district (Van). Form Faraşin Plateau it
was reported that soldiers prevented nomads to go there in June. They had
hindered them at Kasrik Pass between Cudi and Gabar Mountain. Mehmet Soyhan
said that they were hindered despite the fact that they had paid rent to
the governor's office. When they showed the permission to the soldiers
they had said that they could only go there with vehicles, but they did
not have the money to pay for vehicles.On 14 June the daily Özgür
Politika reported that villagers who wanted to go to Dader (Yolağız) hamlet
in Silopi district (Şırnak) were not allowed to so. A major had threatened
them. An unnamed villager told the newspaper: "Soldiers from the central
command of the gendarmerie had been conducting operations there, but we
wanted to look after our gardens and fields. We were threatened not to
go there any more. A major said that they had found mines in our village
and accused us of having planted them. The report in the newspaper
also contained information on villagers from Mixtepe, Abdi Zozanı, Küçük
Ağrı, Kire Hallac, Tujik, Deçare and Kire Zogor (near Mount Ararat) to
have been prevented from going to the plateau. Reportedly the governor
in Van and the command of the gendarmerie had ordered the ban. Earlier
inhabitants of İnek, Güngören, Şex Mirzo, Kule, Gir, Cadde Kıran, Zorava,
Demirkapı and Sela Qosa (Abdiyurt) where the population belongs to the
Şaka tribe had also been banned from going to the plateau. Haydar Kapu (60) alleged
that he was threatened with death to leave his village Pınar (Tunceli).
On 28 June his son had been taken to the command of the gendarmerie in
Tunceli. He had gone to the station and soon the commander Namık Dursun
had come. He had cursed at the NOC who had accepted him inside. Then he
had turned to him saying that he knew everything about him. He should leave
the village, because he was supported militants with flower and cigarettes.
He had not been able to speak himself and in the end the commander had
said that a civilian dressed person with a beard would deal with him.Some 30 families from Yeşilöz
village in Beytüşşebap district (Şırnak) alleged that village guards prevented
them from going to their village. In June they had tried to go there from
Van where they had settled. Some 12 kilometers from the village soldiers
and village guards had erected a tent and not allowed them to pass. When
they complained to the district's governor he had told them that the village
guards were right and they were wrong. They did not go to their village
to look after their fields but for a different purpose.In August Cevat Taşdemir
complained to the Van branch of Göç-Der and said that families from Dönertaş
village in Tatvan district (Bitlis) who had left their village in 1994
but later returned were put under pressure to become village guards. Cevat
Taşdemir said that 50 families had returned and two of them had not accepted
to take up arms. Soldiers had told them that they could not stay in the
village if they did not accept arms. Cevat Taşdemir said that if operations
in the region and the pressure continued he and the 7 members of his families
would have to go back to İstanbul.

The Right
to Asylum and Situation of RefugeesIt was announced that 10,671
refugees were living in Turkey as of 1 June (2005). The General Directory
for Security declared that since 1994 a total of 35,349 foreigners had
applied for asylum in Turkey. Until 2004 a total of 19,579 asylum seekers
had been granted permission to settle in third countries. There were 10,671
foreigners with a stay permit and the rest of the asylum seekers were staying
in Turkey without official permission.In April a national action
plan for the adoption of the EU acquis in the field of migration and asylum
was presented to the Council of Ministers. The plan stated that the geographical
reservation Turkey had raised when signing the 1951 Geneva Convention (no
asylum to person from non-European countries) should be lifted by the year
2012. Speaking at a symposium
of the UNHCR and Amnesty International, Turkey section Işıl Tokcan said
that of the 6,215 asylum seekers in Turkey 60% came from Iran and 20% from
the Iraq. In 2004 a total of 2,292 persons had been resettled. Every year
about 100,000 people used Turkey as a transit country.On 22 July the Mesopotamian
News Agency published an article stating that between 2001 and 2005 a total
of 51,539 citizens from Turkey had been deported from 81 countries. The
lead among these countries had Germany with 19,027 deportations, followed
by France with 3,995, the United Kingdom with 2,200 and the Netherlands
with 1,814 deportations.

Amnesty International's
concerns at the 56th session of the Executive Committee of the United Nations
High Commissioner for RefugeesDocument: AI Index: IOR
41/060/2005 of 3 October 2005; Full text at: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGIOR410602005?open&of=ENG-GRCWaiting for a solution 
the case of Iranian Kurds in Turkey Amnesty International is
concerned about the situation of a group of some 1,200 Iranian Kurdish
refugees who fled to Turkey between 2001 and 2003 having previously claimed
asylum in Northern Iraq, and who have been waiting for a durable solution
for some years in Turkey.This group was part of a
larger group of Iranian Kurdish refugees who had originally fled Iran and
claimed asylum in Northern Iraq in the 1990s and were registered there
by the UNHCR. Due to a lack of effective protection in Northern Iraq at
the time, resettlement was the primary tool of both protection and solutions
for this group of refugees. However, in 1999, the UNHCR office discontinued
resettlement referrals from northern Iraq, leaving the group of refugees
with no effective access to a durable solution. In 2003, the UNHCR office
in Northern Iraq was closed as a result of the deteriorating security situation
in the region. As they were unable to access either effective protection
in Northern Iraq, due in part to the deteriorating security situation in
the region(1), or a durable solution in the form of resettlement to a third
country, the group fled to Turkey, either via Iran or directly from Northern
Iraq. Many of the group allege that they were advised to do so by UNHCR
staff in Northern Iraq.Turkey maintains a geographical
reservation to the Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, which means
in effect that non-European refugees are unable to receive protection from
the Turkish government. In the case of non-European refugees in Turkey,
the authorities will register their details but leave it to the UNHCR office
in Turkey to determine their status. Persons recognised as refugees under
the mandate of UNHCR are referred for resettlement to a third country.
Pending resettlement, non-European refugees in Turkey are provided only
with temporary protection. However, while the group
of 1,200 Iranian Kurdish refugees have been recognized as refugees by UNHCR
in Turkey, as well as by UNHCR in Northern Iraq, the Turkish authorities
have refused to grant protection to these refugees on its territory and
have refused permission to the vast majority of this group to resettle
in a third country, which has placed them at serious risk of refoulement
to Iran. In addition, it appears that third countries of resettlement are
also unwilling to accept this group of refugees due to concerns that the
refugees, legitimately through the principle of family reunification, would
eventually be joined by family members, which would result in a significant
increase in the numbers of persons being resettled.Members of this group have
been compelled to sign statements by the Turkish police, declaring that
they will not be treated officially, in accordance with the regulation
that lays down the rights of asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey,(2)
but rather in accordance with the law that deals with foreigners seeking
to visit or reside in Turkey(3). The statement further asserts that they
will be given temporary residence permits under which they risk refoulement
to Iran if they cannot renew these permits or if they act in a way "contrary
to public order, public health, general morality or national security".
Finally, the statement indicates that permission will not be given to allow
them to be resettled in third countries, and that they shall not benefit
from any of the medical support afforded to other refugees. Local lawyers
have been informed by the Turkish Ministry of the Interior that the measures
are necessary "in order to discourage the coming of other foreigners of
Iranian origin to our country"(4).The organization is concerned
that this group of refugees have not been provided with access to effective
protection, including a timely and appropriate durable solution, despite
being recognized as refugees under UNHCR's mandate. In addition, this group
of Iranian Kurdish refugees have been provided with a lower level of financial
aid by UNHCR Turkey compared to others in the country. This has particularly
affected those refugees who have serious health problems as well as other
vulnerable groups among them including women, elderly people and children,
since they cannot afford treatment in Turkish hospitals. Recommendations Amnesty International urges
the Turkish government: To lift the geographical
reservation to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and
its 1967 Protocol and undertake to provide effective protection to all
refugees under its jurisdiction; To treat the members of
this group in accordance with the 1994 Regulation that lays down the rights
of refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey; To undertake to uphold
the principle of non-refoulement; To give permission to
all refugees who have obtained visas from a third country to leave Turkey
to be resettled in a third country; To enable all refugees
on its territory to enjoy their fundamental human rights, including the
right to work, to an adequate standard of living and to adequate housing.
Particular attention should be given to the situation of vulnerable individuals;Amnesty International calls
on UNHCR: To refrain from any actions
that might amount to discrimination towards this group of refugees and
to provide them with the same level of support as enjoyed by other persons
recognized as refugees under UNHCR's mandate in Turkey; To advocate for and facilitate
the resettlement of this group to third countries;Amnesty International calls
on third countries: To urgently consider offering
places for resettlement to all members of this group of refugees.Footnotes:(1) The security situation
had been bad even before the US invasion of Iraq due inter alia to the
risk of attacks by Iranian agents alleged to be operating in Northern Iraq
as well as the threat posed by the existence of Ansar al-Islam (Protectors
of Islam), an Islamist group reportedly linked to al-Qa'ida, in the area
near Halabja.(2) The 1994 Regulation
on Foreigners who "claim asylum in Turkey or who come to Turkey in order
to claim asylum in another country".(2) Law no 5683 on the Residence
and Visits of Foreigners in Turkey.(4) Letter from the Head
of the Department of Foreigners and Asylum in the Police Headquarters to
the Van Bar Association which Amnesty International has on file.

In March the gendarmerie raided
the house of Mehmet Zeki Kalay in Üçgöçerler village in Çaldıran district
(Van) and found three people from Iran. They said that a fourth person
was missing. He was found near Esengöl, frozen to death. His identity could
not be established.On 22 March a boat with
refugees who tried to go from Ayvalık (Balıkesir) to Lesvos Island (Greece)
capsized. Two persons from Mauritania died and one person from Mauritania
and 8 from Iran were rescued.On 14 April the gendarmerie
opened fire on a vehicle near Uzunyol village in Çaldıran district (Van)
reportedly because the vehicle did not stop. The vehicle was carrying asylum
seeker. In the incident Muhammed Hüseyin from Afghanistan died and İsmail
Fadir, Nadir Ertan (Bangladesh) and Mubaşer Ebugafur (Pakistan) were injured.On 3 May a boat that had
started in Aliağa (İzmir) and tried to go to Greece capsized. The captain
of the boat and 19 people from Mauritania and one from Somalia were rescued;
one woman "disappeared". On 29 May a boat sank between
Ayvacık district (Çanakkale) and Lesvos Island. The owner İsmail T. and
five people from Mauritania were rescued. Four people from Mauritania "disappeared".Two people died when a boat
sank between Dikili district (İzmir) and Lesvos Island on 27 May. 15 people
from Mauritania, five from Tunisia and one from Palestine were rescued.
The victims were said to come from Tunisia.On 12 July a boat sank between
Aliağa district and Lesvos Island. Three people from Somalia drowned and
22 people from Somalia, Palestine and Mauritania were rescued.On 21 July the crew of a
Russian ship threw three people from the Ivory Coast into the water between
Bodrum and Kos Island. Reportedly the migrants were handcuffed on their
backs. One of them drowned, another one "disappeared" and the third one
was rescued by a yacht.One person from Pakistan
who tried to enter Turkey in Erçiş district (Van) died in September. On
a tip-off the police discovered a locked van with 47 asylum seekers. They
had been in the van for three days. One of them died on his way to hospital. Two persons who had entered
Turkey illegally died in a traffic accident in İstanbul on 13 September.
The driver of a lorry carrying these people stopped his vehicle and ran
away when the police wanted to stop him. Two people left the lorry and
were hit by a car coming from behind. The remaining 27 people from Pakistan
and Bangladesh were detained.A boat carrying 12 people
from Iraq and two from Turkey sank near Enez district (Edirne) on 17 September.
Ten persons including two children "disappeared" in the incident. Four
people who could swim ashore were detained near Gülçavuş village. On 18
September the corpses of four people were found.On 18 September the coastguard
opened fire on a boat that tried to carry 30 people from Seferihisar district
(İzmir) to Greece. In the incident Fenzans Hashakczan (26 from Syria) died
and Ammar Bozan (31), Metas Shab (23) and the Greek captain Agiadis Dimitris
were injured. The captain and his assistant Aygiadis Georgios were arrested.On 20 September a boat sank
near Çeşme district (İzmir) in an attempt to go to Greece. Two women from
Somalia died and 28 people (25 from Somalia and three from Palestine) were
detained.On 23 September a lorry
with people who had entered Turkey illegally had an accident near Pazaryolu
district (Erzurum). Seven people died and 63 were injured. These people
reportedly came from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.A fisher's boat that wanted
to go from Mersin to Cyprus sank in the evening of 25 September. Five people
including two from Syria were rescued and 33 people "disappeared". One
corpse was discovered.In an article in the daily
Özgür Gündem allegations were raised that Greek soldiers killed two persons
from Mauritania who tried to go to Lesvos Island. The paper quoted inhabitants
of Bektaş village as saying that the boat had started at 1am near Ayvacık
district (Çanakkale) on 13 October. After five hours the Greek coastguard
had discovered the boat and taken 11 people on board. They had been beaten
and around 6am they had been thrown into the sea. Two had been wounded
to their heads. The others had been rescued by fishermen.On 2 November a boat sank
that tried to go from Çeşme district (İzmir) to Chios Island. The coastguard
rescued 8 people from Palestine, Mauritania and Algeria and found 12 corpses.
For another 16 people there were no hopes to find them alive. The survivors
said that the captain and his assistant escaped when they heard the sound
of a helicopter. They had counted 36 passengers on board.In December two people who
tried to cross the Turkish-Greek border near Balabancık village in İpsala
district (Edirne) froze to death. The nationality and identity of these
people could not be established.